Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• A federal judge in Missouri dismissed a lawsuit filed by the sister of OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who’s nine years younger, alleging he sexually abused her as a child — due to the statute of limitations expiring in 2008. The judge did however say she could refile the claim under Missouri's Childhood Sexual Abuse statute, while also approving a counter suit from Sam Altman against his sister for defamation. [Reuters]
• Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies took a suspect into custody in Lafayette after they found a dead body while conducting a welfare check Saturday morning. [SFGate]
• Fremont police arrested a man who allegedly rammed the car multiple times of the mother of his one-year-old son while the child was in the car. [KRON4]
• Children's entertainer Ms. Rachel recently announced she’s begun working to free children from ICE detention centers and aims to force the closure of the Dilley location in Denver, with the help of lawyers and activists. [NBC News]
• Steph Curry will be back participating in full team practices soon, as he's missed 21 consecutive Warriors games while recovering from a knee injury, and he’s scheduled for an evaluation Tuesday. [KPIX]
• Spring is here! Behold, two colorful and up-close-and-personal vignettes of Saturday’s spectacular Tulip Day at SF’s Union Square. [OnlyInSF, nanaraya_ / Instagram]

SFO is one of the first airports to get Clear’s new real-time biometric eGates security checkpoint in partnership with the TSA, which was announced just weeks after the agency surreptitiously helped kill a crucial bill regulating facial recognition software.

As SFGate reports, the Transportation Security Administration announced a private partnership with Clear back in August in which the agency will be implementing Clear’s expedited eGate checkpoint system at select airports. The new eGate technology, which is currently only available to Clear Plus members who opt in — and shell out $199 per year, captures a live photo of the traveler at the gate and compares it with their physical identification and boarding pass, all without a human operator.

Clear launched the first set of eGates at three initial airports in August — Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Ronald Reagan  National Airport (DCA), and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA), and more recently, SFO and Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF), per a social media post.

The move is in anticipation of streamlining the influx of travelers heading to the upcoming 2026 World Cup events, several of which will be held at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium, per SFGate. “We are proud to help make America’s airports great ahead of the World Cup. The U.S. should be leading on security, hospitality, and the travel experience,” Clear CEO Caryn Seidman Becker said in an August press release.

While Clear assures users’ their live photos are deleted immediately — after they’re sent to the TSA, the company does store users’ initial sign-up photos, per the Washington Post. Clear also says their technology cannot override TSA policies. “CLEAR transmits only limited data (live photo, boarding pass, ID photo used for enrollment and identity information) — it has no access to watchlists, cannot override TSA gate decisions, and does not manually open gates,” the company said in an August news release.

The use of biometric technology raises red flags for a lot of security advocates, especially considering Clear’s privacy policy says it will turn over user data to government agencies and law enforcement when requested.

As Adam Schwartz, the privacy litigation director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told the Washington Post back in 2023, biometric technology makes users especially vulnerable to identity theft. “Biometrics are a particularly hazardous technology for many reasons,” Schwartz said. “We can’t change our biometrics without extreme measures like burning off our fingerprints or getting extreme facial reconstruction surgery. Unlike other numbers that can be changed if we’re a victim of a fraud or whatnot, we have our biometrics for life.”

Additionally, as The Travel reports, users have reported feeling misled upon finding out Clear was a private company rather than a government entity after signing up at the airport. “I think CLEAR is stupid and selling your biometric info to a private company / the government, just to cut the TSA line, is not smart,” one customer wrote. “You are paying them to give your biometric info in exchange for faster security."

There have also been reports of users nearly being pressured into using the eGates while trying to opt out, including Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, per the Washington Post. In November 2024, Merkley introduced the Traveler Privacy Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would establish guardrails around facial recognition at airports. Additionally, in January 2025, a group of 12 senators called for a probe into the TSA’s use of facial recognition technology, per Biometric Update.

Per Politico, the Traveler Privacy Protection Act was ultimately shot down in August, which many say was due to the TSA’s heavy-handed influence.  

Image: Clear/Facebook

In the biggest change since the attacks of September 11, 2001 drastically increased airport security around the US, the Department of Homeland Security has just announced that airline passengers can now keep their shoes on while passing through TSA checkpoints.

The change, which was issued by memo to TSA agents last week and reported on by CBS News Monday, allows all airline passengers in the regular TSA lines at airports — not just Pre-Check — to keep shoes on when going through checkpoints. The policy shift will roll out in phases, but it's already taken effect at San Francisco International Airport as of Tuesday, per the Chronicle.

Other airports on the first-phase list include Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Portland International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, and Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina. And CBS News reported the shoe rule had lifted at LAX and New York's LaGuardia Airport as well. The goal is to have the policy change at all airports soon.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt retweeted the CBS News report on Tuesday morning, but offered no further explanation.

According to Homeland Security, footwear can remain on unless it sets off alarms at scanners or magnetometers, in which case it will need to be removed for further scanning. A statement from HSA said, "We are always exploring new and innovative ways to enhance the passenger experience and our strong security posture."

As some of us may remember, the practice of taking off shoes at airports began in 2006, a full five years after the thwarted terrorist incident that inspired it. And that incident didn't even involve a passenger going through security in the US.

Three months after the 9/11 attacks, on December 22, 2001, London-born petty criminal Richard Reid, who had become radicalized and received terrorist training in Pakistan, boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. In the middle of the flight, Reid began trying to light the fuse on one of his shoes, which was packed with explosives, in an attempted suicide bombing — but the fuse failed to light. Passengers subdued him, the plane made an emergency landing in Boston, and Reid was arrested. He remains in federal prison serving a life sentence.

It's not clear what technology now exists to detect a similar "shoe bomb," except maybe the full-body scanners, which most major airports now use.

It's been the practice at SFO and elsewhere, at least on busier travel days in the last two years, to streamline the security process by using bomb-sniffing dogs in the TSA lines — you may have done the two-by-two walks past them — and then allowing travelers to keep electronics and liquids in their bags before sending them through the scanners. Occasionally this was combined with a lifting of the shoe-removal policy.

And even though Reid had been on an international flight into the US, the shoe-removal practice was very much an America-only thing. Flights out of Europe, Asia, and Canada generally have never required this, except for a brief period two decades ago when Europe followed suit with the US.

Top image: Travelers go through the TSA PreCheck security point at Miami International Airport on June 2, 2016 in Miami, Florida. As the busy summer travel season heats up the Transportation Security Administration is encouraging people to sign up for the TSA PreCheck program to save time going through the airports security lines. Those enrolled in the program can leave their shoes, light outerwear and belt on during the terminal screening process as well as keeping their laptop in the carry-on suitcase without having to remove them at the checkpoint. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Barni, a 5-year-old German shorthaired pointer whom you may have encountered while waiting in a TSA line at San Francisco International Airport, just won a prize for being cute from the TSA.

The Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) 2024 Cutest Canine Contest was held last week via social media, on multiple platforms, taking votes on four finalists chosen from 87 TSA K-9s. Among them was Barni, an explosives detection pooch who works the terminals at SFO — in the last year you may have been instructed to walk past him, in fact, two at a time with your luggage, before getting to the ID-check stations.

"Our explosives detection canines and their handlers are an essential component of TSA’s multi-layered approach to security,” says TSA Administrator David Pekoske in a statement. "I look forward to this contest every year, and the friendly competition among airports and then with the public is a great way to recognize their work to secure our transportation systems and keep the traveling public safe."

Barni's handler, Michelle Cogel, has been a canine handler at SFO for three years, and has worked for the TSA for six years. He actually goes home at night with Michelle, who says that when he's not at work "he’s free to be a goofball," and, per the TSA, "He loves to play fetch but mainly is obsessed with keeping fit by chasing squirrels."

Barni is one of over 1,000 canine teams trained at the TSA's Canine Training Center in San Antonio, Texas. They work to detect the scent of explosives in large groups of people, even if those scents are mobile — like in rolling luggage.

"The canines and their handlers train regularly, and the handlers learn to read subtle changes in their canine’s behavior when the scent of an explosive has been detected," the TSA explains.

Barni will now be featured on the front cover of the TSA’s downloadable 2025 Canine Calendar the agency will release in December.  

The TSA also congratulates the other three finalists in the Cutest Canine Contest, who were selected by TSA employees. They are: Carlo, a 3-year-old male Vizsla from Kansas City International Airport (MCI); Badger, a 5-year-old male Belgian Malinois from Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), who was the runner-up; and Birdie, a 3-year-old Yellow Lab/Vizsla from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE).

The pricey, $189-a-year service called Clear that lets people cruise through airport TSA lines could be banned in California, under a proposed bill from state lawmakers who think its unfair to people can’t pay the extra 200 bucks.

I don’t spend a lot of money on travel, so when I saw this CBS News report that a new state bill could ban Clear from California airports, I just assumed it meant you couldn’t take some kind of Barry Bonds steroids through TSA checkpoints. But instead, Clear is a subscription-based travel product where a private security company allows people to bypass the TSA checkpoint lines if they’ve paid a $189-a-year subscription fee.

But Clear could be wiped out, in California at least, under a new bill proposed by state Senator Josh Newman (D-Brea). Newman’s SB-1372 would bar Clear from operating in California airports, and equalize that TSA line for everyone.

"It's a basic equity issue when you see people subscribed to a concierge service being escorted in front of people who have waited a long time to get to the front of TSA line," Newman told CBS News’ MoneyWatch. "Everyone is beaten down by the travel experience, and if Clear escorts a customer in front of you and tells TSA, 'Sorry, I have someone better,' it's really frustrating."

Newman insists his bill would not ban Clear outright, it would just remove the priority service for Clear. But that would seem to effectively eliminate any reason for people to pay for Clear in the state of California. And Clear, which is a private company and not directly affiliated with TSA, curtly stepped around the “equity issue” that Newman complains of in their own remarks to CBS News.

"We are proud to partner with nine airports across California — creating hundreds of jobs, sharing more than $13 million in annual revenue with our California airport partners and serving nearly 1 million Californians," Clear said in a statement to CBS News. "We are always working with our airline and airport partners as well as local, state, and federal governments to ensure all travelers have a safer, easier checkpoint experience."

It should be noted that Clear, unlike the federally sponsored TSA Pre-Check, does not necessarily get you through the TSA screening process any faster, it literally just lets you skip the first part of the line by skipping over the ID-check part. You still have to remove shoes and send bags through scanners, etc.

Interestingly, Newman’s bill has some airline industry support — from airline-related unions, at least. CBS News reports that the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) supports the bill, as do the Bay Area unions for Transportation Security Officers. But the big airlines are already coming out swinging against the measure, as CBS News points out that Alaska Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines all have partnerships with Clear.

Newman’s bill is just a proposal at this point, and has not yet even received a single vote. It will have its first state Senate hearing tomorrow, Tuesday, April 23, at the California Senate Transportation Committee.

Related: Morrissey Still Griping About Groping At SFO, Says TSA Is Worse Than ISIS [SFist]

Image: Priority checkpoint for the private security screening service Clear at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Francisco, California, September 13, 2017. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

The federal Transportation Security Administration announced Thursday morning that Americans will need to keep wearing masks through at least April 18 on public transit, on planes, and in transit hubs.

While dropping the mask mandate for most indoor public spaces last month, California has left in place the mandate for high-risk settings like hospitals, long-term care facilities, doctors' offices, etc. And the mandate for public transit — which includes taxis, subways, buses, rideshare vehicles, and ferries, as well as stations and terminals — has remained in place all along at the federal level, even as local mandates have shifted over the last year.

But the TSA announced today that, on the CDC's recommendation, they will be keeping the masks mandate in place for transit and air travel until April 18. A previous recommendation had gone through March 18, and this reflects a one-month extension.

In the next month, the agency says, "CDC will work with government agencies to help inform a revised policy framework for when, and under what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation corridor."

TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement, per NBC News, "now we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel as demonstrated by the rapid recovery of the travel industry."

At the national level, we are still recording between 25,000 and 50,000 new COVID cases each day, and between 1,500 and 2,000 new deaths. The American death toll from the pandemic reached 964,000 on Wednesday, and it's likely to hit 1 million in the coming months barring a steep drop-off in daily deaths.

SFist readers know how much this site enjoys ragging on the litany of stupid, overly-entitled, pointless, and public-safety-compromising apps that power our contemporary local economy. So it behooves SFist to occasionally highlight useful, pragmatic apps, to foster the illusion of journalistic balance. This one goes out to those of you traveling by air this summer (or this weekend) who will face airport security line misery like never before resulting in multiple-hour wait times that have generated less than outstanding publicity for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

No app will get you through TSA wait line more quickly, but a couple of Bay Area apps and websites can at least tell you how long you can expect to wait in the security line, and thereby prevent you from being one of the tens of thousands who will miss their flight because of TSA wait times. Let’s kick back, remove our shoes, place our laptops in a separate bin and take a look at the Bay Area’s best homegrown resources for hacking your time investment in the TSA line.

The above video “TSA are you f***ing kidding me?” was shot earlier this month at Chicago’s Midway Airport, not at SFO. Nonetheless, “We confirmed that waits are longer,” wait-time app MiFlight founder Michael Harmell told SFist. “All of the major [U.S. airport] hubs have had a spike. SFO has actually trended pretty well.” SFO, Oakland International, and Mineta International Airport in San Jose all face some wait time issues because the TSA and its various subcontractors are badly understaffed. What are the best hacks provided by local websites and apps to disrupt these inevitable travel disruptions?

MiFlight
MiFlight (pronounced MEE-flight) is an app for iOS that crowdsources user data Waze-style to determine your TSA wait time and communicate it to you in advance. ”Everyone has a right to information about their lives,” the app’s founder Michael Harmell told SFist. MiFlight can assess your individual terminal and gate’s wait time, and is “freemium” with 99-cent add-ons like removing ads and unlocking terminal maps of airports.

Alas, though, MiFlight is only available as an app for iOS. If you're an Android person or prefer to just use a mobile browser, you have other options for checking your TSA wait time in advance.

iFly
Los Gatos-based iFly.com also lists wait times by airport online, but the information is less specific. As seen above, iFly only displays information in three wait time assessments: 0-10 minutes, 11-20 minutes, and 21+ minutes. The site is crawling with intrusive ads and difficult to navigate, but we can cut to the chase and provide direct links to SFO wait times, OAK wait times, and SJC wait times.

iFly also has an iOS app called TSA Wait Times by iFly that appears to cost $3.99 in the iTunes store.

My TSA
Not-terribly-accurate wait times for many airports are also available on the My TSA website, and the My TSA app for iOS and Android, but the time totals on the apps display no higher than “31+ minutes”. That’s no help if your wait is three hours! You also have the option of getting through the line more quickly with TSA Pre-Check, but that requires going through an application process — including an interview at the airport — and paying an $85 fee. In other words, you would not be able to access TSA Pre-Check this weekend unless you've already been accepted into the program.

Related: Morrissey Says Security Officer At SFO Groped His Junk

British misery-dweller Morrissey is still complaining loudly and publicly about a pat-down by a TSA agent at San Francisco International Airport in July that he characterized as a sexual assault. And now he quips that TSA should stand for "Thorough Sexual Assault," and writes "It is unlikely that ISIS would stoop so low." Wow, Moz.

The incident occurred in July when Morrissey was leaving SFO following a concert in San Jose, en route back to London, and he claims that the agent "crouched before me and groped my penis and testicles." In October, after conducting their own internal investigation, the TSA and the airport released surveillance footage that showed the incident from multiple angles and did not appear to show anything untoward — nor does it show the singer reacting particularly strongly after the alleged groping. The TSA says that what the tape showed was just routine screening, and the agent in question treats another passenger coming through the scanner similarly.

Now, as the NY Daily News and others are reporting, Morrissey gave a comment to his fan zine True to You, expressing his continued outrage over what he seems to suggest is an institutional coverup.

Here's the statement in full:

"TSA have ignored my official and legal and constitutional complaint. From this we gather that TSA stands for Thorough Sexual Assault. If you are traveling through San Francisco International Airport you must be ready for a full sexual attack by people who claim to have your interests at heart. It is unlikely that ISIS would stoop so low."

Earlier, and equally witheringly, Morrissey spoke out in the zine saying, "In the interests of imperishable bureaucracy my submitted complaint against this ‘officer’ will obviously be either unread or ignored because, as we all know, on matters of officialism it is not possible to be pleasantly surprised by anything at all."

We probably shouldn't minimize this if he's being so insistent, but the TSA maintains "the supervised officer followed standard operating procedures in the screening of this individual."

San Francisco, at the very least, can look forward to Morrissey never playing here again.

Previously: Morrissey Says Security Officer At SFO Groped His Junk

Three security screeners at SFO have been indicted on fraud and drug smuggling charges, the Justice Department said on Friday. The three were employees of Covenant Aviation Security, a private company that's contracted with the Transportation Security Administration to provide additional security at the San Francisco airport.

The federal indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday, revealed that the three had arranged for passengers they knew were carrying cocaine in their carry-ons to pass through designated x-ray machines, and purposely allowed them through security in exchange for money.

According to court documents, one of the accused screeners would meet up with the smugglers at the airport, so they could identify whom they'd allow to pass through security. The smugglers would then be directed to the lines where the other defendants were working x-ray machines and monitoring passengers, and would be let through, no questions asked, reports KTVU. Undercover Drug Enforcement and TSA agents discovered that these transactions happened on five separate occasions between May 2013 and April 2014.

Joseph Scott of Vallejo, Michael Castaneda of Daly City, and Jessica Scott of San Pablo are all charged with two counts: the first is conspiring to defraud the TSA by obstructing a lawful government function, which, if convicted, could carry a sentence of five years in prison, plus a maximum fine of $250,000. The second count—conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine— could get the defendants a mandatory minimum of ten years, with a maximum sentence of life in prison, on top of a maximum fine of $10 million.

This bust follows on the March indictment of two TSA screeners at SFO who are accused of conspiring with a third individual in similar meth smuggling operation. Their scheme was surveilled in part through messages exchanged over Facebook.

Previously: FBI Uses Facebook Messages To Nab Alleged Meth-Smuggling TSA Agents At SFO

A photo posted by TSA (@tsa) on Apr 20, 2015 at 6:27pm PDT

I've made no secret of my love for the Transportation Security Administration's Instagram account in the past, as I love seeing the crazy stuff travelers try to smuggle onto flights on their person/in their carry-ons. This week, we got to see two winners from Oakland: one from last week, and a Greatest TSA Hit from 2013.

According to the TSA, last week a traveler at Oakland Airport tried to fly with this vaguely "Samurai"sh sword in his carry-on — that is, until a TSA worker caught it. "All knives and swords are prohibited from being packed in carry-on bags," the TSA reminds passengers. "However, they may be packed in checked bags."

Yesterday, the TSA Throwback Thursdayed us with the above gem, saying that back in 2013 a single Oakland Airport passenger tried to fly with the above "plethora of prohibited martial arts items in his carry-on bag including swords, knives, throwing stars, a grappling hook, and more!"

A grappling hook? Guess this is why Bruce Wayne never flies commercial.

Two TSA screeners working at SFO were allegedly involved in a plot involving a third individual to smuggle multiple pounds of methamphetamine through security checkpoints in carry-on luggage. As the Examiner reports, all three were arrested Friday in connection with the operation, which was surveilled, in part, through accessing Facebook messages sent between the three.

As the Chronicle adds, the TSA agents now in custody are 30-year-old Claudio Rene Sunux of San Francisco and 27-year-old Amanda Lopez of South SF, and the third person and alleged smuggler is 28-year-old Anibal Giovanni Ramirez of San Francisco.

According to the just unsealed federal complaint, per CBS 5, Sunux is accused of arranging the operation while Lopez reportedly checked over the luggage in question on September 17. One bag contained "20 pounds of methylsulfonylmethane, a common filler or cutting agent" while the other "contained 68.5 grams of pure meth." Ramirez allegedly paid a bribe to the two agents in exchange for letting the meth slide through. It's unclear if the drugs were ever recovered, or if Ramirez was apprehended at the time.

All three are charged with conspiracy to distribute meth which could get them ten years to life, and they're additionally charged with bribery counts, which could mean additional prison time. Sunux and Lopez are scheduled to appear before a federal judge today, and Ramirez is scheduled to appear on Wednesday.

If nothing else, let this be a reminder that your Facebook messaging is not private. Also, meth is whack.

If you see cops, TSA agents, and other law enforcement officers scrambling during your morning commute Friday, don't worry, it's (probably) not a disaster.

According to BART spokesperson Luna Salaver, on Friday morning, BART cops, TSA officers, and Bay Area, state and federal law enforcement officers will be working with other local transit agencies to conduct joint security training exercises at several area BART stations.

Salaver says that the training events shouldn't have any impact on BART service, but that they wanted to let us know about the exercise, "so people will not be alarmed."

Possibly alarming things you might see on Friday include: officers appearing to respond to training incidents, uniformed officers and police canine units accessing station areas, and emergency vehicles parked near stations or in BART parking lots.

"The purpose of the training is to prepare for possible future emergencies," Salaver says. You can expect to see the action go down from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM Friday at the SFO, Embarcadero, West Oakland and Coliseum BART stations.